At IIT-Bombay, six PSUs had registered for placements but only three came to the campus in the first phase conducted from December 1 -18, 2016.

While most IITs were promised job offers by 6 to 10 PSUs, half or even fewer showed up for the first phase of interviews and formed a share of 1-3% of the total jobs offered across all IITs.(HT FILE)

The much-hyped re-entry of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) at the placement season of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) doesn’t seem to have helped the students a lot. While most IITs were promised job offers by 6 to 10 PSUs, half or even fewer showed up for the first phase of interviews and formed a share of 1-3% of the total jobs offered across all IITs.

At IIT-Bombay, six PSUs had registered for placements but only three came to the campus in the first phase conducted from December 1 -18, 2016. “Fifteen jobs were offered by PSUs and the profiles included core engineering as well as Research and Development roles,” said professor Tom Matthew, placement in-charge, IIT-B. A total of 1,013 students were placed in the first phase at IIT-B, out of which only 15 jobs came from PSUs including Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

While PSUs have hired freshers out of IITs and IIMs for a long time, a temporary stay on this process was put in place by the Madras High Court following a petition filed in 2014 seeking a ban on public sector companies opting for campus placements at private institutes and eating into chances of students from other government institutes vying for the same jobs. The ban was finally lifted in December 2015, giving private institutes a free hand to approach more companies.

Most IITs were looking forward to the re-entry of PSUs, and were expecting more job offers as well as better pay packages, but the companies fell short of students’ expectations. At IIT-Hyderabad, only four PSUs showed up in the first phase of placement. “These companies offered about 20 jobs for profiles including scientist, management trainee, engineer, etc. The salary packages ranged from Rs 5-7 lakh per annum (plus perks and bonus),” said professor Pradeep Kumar Yemula, placement head, IIT-H.

At IIT-Delhi as well, just about 1% of the total job offers made in the first phase were offered by PSUs. IIT-Madras, however, saw better participation by PSUs with Indian Navy, ISRO and ONGC conducting interviews before the placement season started, as well as Coal India, Bharat Electronics (BEL) and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) showing up. The job offers made, however, were few compared to the overall figures.

“Since many PSUs were interested on hiring from IITs this year, we had great expectations from them. While the first phase didn’t look very appealing, we are hoping to rope in more companies in the second phase now and hopefully get better results,” said a student member from the placement committee of IIT-B. He added that as of now, two PSUs have showed up in the second phase of placements and offered five jobs each.